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With the new PRL update did everyone get increased signals and speeds?
My personal best at home and at a location I am very familiar with was 5.5 Mbps and I thought that was more than good enough.
Well today I tested and my bars increased in my home office by 1 or 2 bars(up and down) and I just got over 11.50 Mbps!
Nice job Sprint. Anyone else get much better results lately through the radio update and PRL change?
I don't get 4g in my house, but I did notice a speed increase with my 3g coverage. I'm in a weak signal area and got around 200-400 kbps with the old prl, and now with the new prl I get 500-700 kbps.
abanh said:
I don't get 4g in my house, but I did notice a speed increase with my 3g coverage. I'm in a weak signal area and got around 200-400 kbps with the old prl, and now with the new prl I get 500-700 kbps.
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Can't complain about double right?
I also did notice my 3G speed increased as well. I am fortunate to have 4G as now I have a tethering solution wirelessly and USB for PC and MAC
I hope Sprint continues down the path they have been going lately and get a foothold of the 3.5G(4G) market. I am liking their Customer Service and their speeds along with their phones. They are finally understanding the game.
Yeah, I see better signal and 3g speeds with the new prl. Lakeland,fl
Sent from my EVO!
I drive by the Sprint Campus in Overland Park, KS everyday and I have full 4G bars. I have never get over 3.5 and it's really annoying and with all the latest updates it now doesn't go past 1.8...
It's funny though because my 3G speed has in fact increased. Ok, well not so funny because I want the 5+ 4G speeds other's seem to get.
Before 2.2 I used to get spotty 4G coverage at my house with about 5mbps down/1mbps up but didn't notice any issues with battery. Now with 2.2 I consistently get 4G at my house and get about 7-8mbps down/1mbps up, but the battery life is horrible! I left 4G on this morning when I unplugged my phone from the charger around 9AM with 100% battery, its now close to 1PM and I have hardly used to phone (just checked some emails) and I am down to 20% in 4 hours. Anyone else seeing this as well??
Oh yeah, I've noticed a huge increase. Before I wouldn't go past 4MB, now I am getting Over 8MBs! Pic for proof here
I live right in the city of Seattle just northeast of downtown and in a very old building with thick brick walls. I could only get 2 or 3 bars of 3g and could not get a 4g connection at all. when I updated to froyo rooted Rom, and the radio to the 7.28 and wimax to 26023, I can now get 3 bars of 4g!
the 3g signal did not change, but after thinking wimax indoors would never happen due to the structure of my building, surrounding tall buildings, the wavelength used for 4g, and a tiny dead zone a block from my apartment, I am very pleased and surprised.
and no, I did not discover some new magical hotspot of reception inside my apartment - I checked every square inch to find the best reception for tethering in the past and set the phone at the exact same spot, on top of my 2nd window's curtain rod.
this happened before I updated the PRL, but now with the updated PRL it still works the same, so maybe it was partly the radio too?
I believe there is a bug in the signal strength indication on the Fascinate, the one that shows the signal strength in -dBm.
You can see the signal strength of the cell signal on the Menu, Settings, About, Status screen. Or you can place a widget on your Home screen. There are several widgets available, I'm using Mobile Signal Widget.
I have a network extender, which basically creates a cell tower right in your home. With my Motorola Droid, I used to get signal strengths down to about -50 something and 60's in indicated signal strength. I can hold both of our Fascinates right next to the network extender's antenna and they will read no better than -86 dBm. So far I've seen signal strengths from -86 dBm to -106 dBm (terrible).
I believe there is a bug in the software (Baseband) on the Fascinate. Previously, I thought the hardware (antenna/radio) wasn't very good, but now it may be software related.
Has anyone seen a signal strength stronger than -86 dBm on the Fascinate?
That's a good point. Mine has never gone below -86dbm either. It fluctuates between -86 at it's best and -106 at it's worst.
Ill keep an eye on this with my phone
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
I have no experience with cell phone radios so take this with the appropriate helping of salt.
Most radios have input protection that attenuates any signals greater than a set maximum level to prevent damage to the radio. I'm guessing the Fascinate reports it's receive signal level post input protection. It appears you just discovered this threshold for the Fascinate. Honestly, -86 dBm is plenty of signal, anything more is just for show
Again, I'm only speculating here.
Martian21
Interesting theory. I have emailed Verizon support as well. Hopefully, I will get a technical response and not a canned response from them.
With mine, it only fluctuates in -5dBm increments lol. I thought it was a litle wierd. I've seen -86, -91, -96, -101, and -106 lol.
As far as what the OP is talking about, my BB Tour (alltel) is the same way. It won't ever display anything lower than a -80.
Anyone else have a consistently high TWS(Time Without Signal) percentage? Mine almost never goes below 50%, and I've seen it up in the 80s. I think my battery life is really suffering from this. You can see yours in Settings > About Phone > Battery Use > Cell Standby. I've tried a few "fixes" that I've found through researching the issue on other android phones in general, but haven't seen any results.
shazbonk said:
Anyone else have a consistently high TWS(Time Without Signal) percentage? Mine almost never goes below 50%, and I've seen it up in the 80s. I think my battery life is really suffering from this. You can see yours in Settings > About Phone > Battery Use > Cell Standby. I've tried a few "fixes" that I've found through researching the issue on other android phones in general, but haven't seen any results.
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I was thinking about this the other day. Is it possible "time without signal" is simply a poor translation? The reason I ask this is when taking my phone off the charger overnight, I went directly to this setting to see what it reported. The phone reported having been unplugged for 2 minutes and already showed 5% TWS. I had been looking at the phone the whole time and didn't see it drop at all. What I did see is it going from 3G w/ arrows to 3Gd. So maybe this percentage isn't time without signal but rather time not active (i.e. 3G d).
I agree w/ the 3g d, I did not update to DI01 yet and it said I have 20% TWS throughout the day, but the phone didnt make a no service sound.
On my drive home everday I pass a Verizon owned tower.
I've stopped at a liquor store about 200 yards away from it and they maximum signal my Fascinate would pull down was -86dBm (4 bars as well).
My Cell Standby is usually around 11%.
Battery life of my Fascinate is very good.
xliderider: Any news/word from Verizon on this? What kind of Network Extender do you have? Got a brand/model #? Been thinking of picking something up like this.
So it isn't just my phone. My Fascinate goes from -86 to -106 as well. I had my Droid and Fascinate sitting next to each other, both reporting 4 bars. I went into status, and my Droid's signal strength was -77. The Fascinate was at -86. It's gotta be capped.
You're holding it wrong.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
You are probably right. With 4 full bars I can't get better than -86
I've been having the same problem...I was told by Verizon that it just has a "weaker" antenna. I go throughout the day with about 20% TWS. Never had that with my other Verizon phones.
do you get dropped calls or otherwise poor service?
I am returning my incredible due to dropped calls (while at home) using Verizons network Extender. I have had the incredible since April 29th (I believe that was the first day it was released). I have had the signal boosted twice by Verizon but still can't get close to 40' without dropping. One thing I noticed on the incredible while in the same room with the Extender is it would read let's say a -86dbm before placing a call then when placed and on the Extender network the signal would automatically go to -56dbm (stronger signal than -86dbm) and then back up after my call. What I saw was the Extender wasn't active until you make a call... Having said that, I am hoping the Fascinate will be better than the inc was... I will let you know when the Fascinate gets to me Wed or Thursday.
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Got the Facinate a day early : )
So far it is defiantly working better than my Incredible on my verizon network extender!
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Mines 0%
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Sounds like it could have the same problem that affected the Vibrant. It NEVER showed higher than -81dBm, and would often reflect no signal (-0dBm is spectacular but it really means no signal within the Android system). Now with the update it reflects up to -51dBm like it should for GSM/WCDMA with Android and doesn't drop to -0dBm anymore. This of course effected the bars, often dropping to no bars or 1. Now after it's been fixed, plenty of bars and proper -dBm readings.
Haven't yet seen a poll on this and I am curious to see if this is really affecting as many as it seems, here on XDA.
Edit: It would appear that it is indeed an issue for 9/10 NS4G owners.
I have poor WiFi reception. I had a Hero and Evo, and my GF has a Shift, and all those devices have gotten good Wifi in the bedroom. A desktop and laptop have good reception there too. The NS is hopeless unless I stand near the door and hold it gingerly with two fingers. I ended up adding another AP in another part of the house just to cover the NS.
3G signal acquisition is a little below the average set by the above devices, but not too bad. I have to be in a pretty marginal area not to get 3G, and the Evo and Shift last only a little bit past the NS' range.
I have only just recently acknowledged this as a problem. Since day one my WiFi cuts out and my time without a signal is always high. Not sure if 3G is just poor because of Sprint, but it has also been a huge battery drain.
What's funny is the OTA announcement does not seem to state that they are working on 3g issues. It is a little unclear, but that 5th bullet point seems to say they are addressing 4g radio issues only!
re:
Hopefully they increase its stability as a result of fixing other areas of the radio? Longshot, I know.
Wifi is the suck. I have had less than full strength 1ft away from the router.
Not sure if it is this phone or Sprints cup and string network but I constantly get random periods of no internet/data throughput. Mainly on 4g. Going through one right now. 4g connects but there is just zero data tranfered. All webpages time out etc. Now on Sprints totally awesome dialup on vitamins 3g network.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
For me, all the above. Call me pessimistic but I'm kinda doubting that software will fix a poor radio. Has anyone ever actually experienced an update solving a bad radio? I was actually considering getting a new evo 4g with the extended battery and call it a day. As more days pass by, it seems my network performance gets worse. The times where I'm not getting any data throughput are getting longer. It was annoying for awhile but now this really pissing me off! Cycling airplane mode and rebooting the phone is getting to the point where it doesn't fix anything. Its a waste of time. Like many other people are saying, I love the phone but using it for its main purpose, a phone, it is utterly horrible! Most of the time I have very little signal on the tower, if any at all. I keep saying I'm not going to buy Samsung phones anymore but I still do and continue to get burned by them.
Weird. Now that you mention it I thought the same thing. It just gets worse.
When I first got this phone I could sit on 4g all day long and the internet was just there. 3g too. 100% reliable network activity. Then about a month ago the random periods of no data throughput started happening. First it was both 3g and 4g, now it is just 4g. The 3g speeds are a joke. You can't stream **** with this phone on 3g without skipping and buffering. 4g streams fine but you still have to worry about the data throughput hitting a 2hr or longer brick wall of uselessness.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
Luckily i keep my galaxy tab with me because my nexus will show no bars and no data when my tab will be close to full. I just end up using my tab for most of my data use.
Sent from my SPH-P100 using XDA App
If the next update comes and it doesn't fix anything, then we should be allowed to have the device replaced.
My guess is that it is a combination of our crappy radios and sprint is still having wide spread data issues. My gf has my epic and even though she gets more signal and less data loss than I do, she's still experiencing network issues. About an hour ago, I just got a bunch of responses from her that were morning and afternoon and they came in all at once. I sent an email and a text in both stock SMS and Google voice a little while ago and haven't heard anything back yet. Sprint must know they're having network issues. It seems like it has been going on for three weeks now and today is really bad. There are times that I think dial up is faster than the speeds I'm getting when it does work.
Woohoo. Just got 4g data throughput back. Only down for 4 and 1/2 hours today. All good till tomorrows outage. *eyeroll*
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
I noticed I just got 3g back.
3G and 4G are great! only WiFi needs to be touched up. I use 3G at the home (averaging 2,000 kbps DL) so WiFi isn't needed unless I'm downloading huge ROMs or other files.
Still, I prefer having a working WiFi for friend's houses and other locations.
So I've had the phone for 2 weeks now, and I finally activated it yesterday. To my dismay, I am not getting reception in the common areas of my house. I'm on T-Mobile and their coverage map says that I should be getting "Good" reception in my area. But it seems like the reception just goes in and out. If I am using my phone in my hands while sitting on the couch in my living room, I get no reception. However I left the phone sitting on the couch and went to get a drink, and when I came back I had received 2 texts. Wtf?
The same thing happens in my room. When I'm leaning against the stairs to my loft bed, I get no bars. However, if I move literally 6 inches to the left, I get 3 bars to full reception. What's the deal?
And when I say I get no reception, the phone is showing a "hollow" triangle, like with black as it's background. Is that normal? On my old phone that ran ICS (CM9), when I had no bars, it would show a gray triangle with a little X in it. I was getting this hollow triangle when I had no SIM card in it, so I thought it was odd that it shows the same thing when I have no reception.
Any ideas anyone?
I've noticed that the reception on this device can take a nosedive when it is held. And yes, when you have no reception it is normal to show the hollow triangle.
aron7awol said:
I've noticed that the reception on this device can take a nosedive when it is held. And yes, when you have no reception it is normal to show the hollow triangle.
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Huh, thanks for the reply. I'll try holding it differently. And thanks for letting me know, I wasn't sure.
I've been having the same problem. I drop signal a lot even when its just in my pocket. I'm starting to think the radios in the N4 just suck
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
lowrider262 said:
I've been having the same problem. I drop signal a lot even when its just in my pocket. I'm starting to think the radios in the N4 just suck
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
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I think I would have to agree with this. It's so weird. Like sitting in the same exact spot, I can go from full signal to no signal in a matter of seconds. It's really actually beginning to get in my nerves, and I'm wondering if I have a bad unit.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk²
From past experience with TMo, 2 year subscriber from 2003-2005, and just signed up for the $30 Monthly plan, their coverage just plain sucks. I'm in a good coverage area according to their map too but I get 1 bar in my house, -109 dBm (measured with Network Signal Info) while my Verizon phone gets -60 dBm, and full bars. I took my phone outside and I had to walk half a block towards the main street before I got a decent signal, -90 dBm and was even up to 3g data speeds, no HSPA+. However, this is still an improvement from my previous experience with them as I used to have to take my phone a mile up to the Interstate to get a signal (I live in a medium sized city by the way mentioned in a TMo commercial). I'm looking at purchasing a signal booster but haven't decided if I want to go that route or just switch to StraightTalk running off AT&T's network and see if its any better.
I should also mention that at work, in a different town, inside my office I get crappy reception, 1-2 bars but if I go out into the hallway 5 feet away I get 4-5 bars. The signal strength fluctuates all the time so not sure what is going on, maybe a lot of interference from wireless devices.
kzoodroid said:
From past experience with TMo, 2 year subscriber from 2003-2005, and just signed up for the $30 Monthly plan, their coverage just plain sucks. I'm in a good coverage area according to their map too but I get 1 bar in my house, -109 dBm (measured with Network Signal Info) while my Verizon phone gets -60 dBm, and full bars. I took my phone outside and I had to walk half a block towards the main street before I got a decent signal, -90 dBm and was even up to 3g data speeds, no HSPA+. However, this is still an improvement from my previous experience with them as I used to have to take my phone a mile up to the Interstate to get a signal (I live in a medium sized city by the way mentioned in a TMo commercial). I'm looking at purchasing a signal booster but haven't decided if I want to go that route or just switch to StraightTalk running off AT&T's network and see if its any better.
I should also mention that at work, in a different town, inside my office I get crappy reception, 1-2 bars but if I go out into the hallway 5 feet away I get 4-5 bars. The signal strength fluctuates all the time so not sure what is going on, maybe a lot of interference from wireless devices.
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with my previous phones I never had an issue keeping a signal (s2, amaze, sensation, g2x, gnex) but with my N4 I can't even keep edge for too long without it dropping. and I get the gray signal bar thing a lot too. aside from that i love this phone its perfect but its just not worth it if im at risk of missing callsthinking about trying ST at&t or maybe trade someone on cl for a note 2.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Yeah I almost always get the gray signal bars. It seems like edge takes forever to kick in. When it finally does it's reasonably fast (at least compared to my old Virgin Mobile phone that averaged 10-15kbps on a good day) but it just takes absolutely forever.
But for example, right now I'm sitting in the dining room in my house. The signal bars are hollow. A couple of minutes ago, I went to the kitchen, set the phone down on the table, and when I came back, I had gotten a text message! I just can't comprehend this.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk²
are all of you using tmobile? anyone on att straight talk have issues?
kcls said:
Yeah I almost always get the gray signal bars. It seems like edge takes forever to kick in. When it finally does it's reasonably fast (at least compared to my old Virgin Mobile phone that averaged 10-15kbps on a good day) but it just takes absolutely forever.
But for example, right now I'm sitting in the dining room in my house. The signal bars are hollow. A couple of minutes ago, I went to the kitchen, set the phone down on the table, and when I came back, I had gotten a text message! I just can't comprehend this.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk²
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are u on stock? i recently flashed project cold fusion (cm10 based) and i immediately noticed my signal both WiFi and data/voice were stronger (or showing more bars anyway). i wont be able to fully test this theory till tomorrow at work, where my signal has been dropping like crazy on stock ROM. but its something to consider trying if u havent already
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
I've noticed these issues in areas with low Tmo reception. One minute the phone will have 3 bars and the next it will be the hollow triangle. I don't have any of these issues at my house because I get a very strong edge signal.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T
Mine is strong wherever I go. From my college to home I get no less than 2 bars. I live in a small town in NC.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
lowrider262 said:
are u on stock? i recently flashed project cold fusion (cm10 based) and i immediately noticed my signal both WiFi and data/voice were stronger (or showing more bars anyway). i wont be able to fully test this theory till tomorrow at work, where my signal has been dropping like crazy on stock ROM. but its something to consider trying if u havent already
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
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Yeah I'm on stock. I was planning on flashing ParanoidAndroid this weekend though, I'm REALLY hoping that improves things. This is just so frustrating.
sporez said:
I've noticed these issues in areas with low Tmo reception. One minute the phone will have 3 bars and the next it will be the hollow triangle. I don't have any of these issues at my house because I get a very strong edge signal.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T
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I'm new to GSM. Is E or H better in the statusbar?
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kcls said:
I'm new to GSM. Is E or H better in the statusbar?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk²
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H is better. E means you're on edge (2g) which is slow. When you're on H you should be getting at least 3g speeds and sometimes much more.
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Ugh. I've only seen H for a short time last night. I get E pretty much all the time. Just another reason to hate T-Mobile and this phone now.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk²
I'm on AT&T, using a MEdia Net plan and have been getting weird connection drops on HSPA+. I haven't ever seen the phone go on EDGE, so I can't comment about 2G connections.
It's seems like the phone just drops a connection randomly and frequently. I can't even stream NPR anymore. On WiFi, the connection is flawless. I didn't have his issue a week ago, and I've flash many different ROMs since then. I not sure if this is a modem issue or an AT&T network issue. My account still shows that the N4 is recognized as a plain old dumb phone, so I don't think that they've restricted my access, but knowing AT&T, any annoyance is possible.
kcls said:
Ugh. I've only seen H for a short time last night. I get E pretty much all the time. Just another reason to hate T-Mobile and this phone now.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk²
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T-Mobile does suck when it comes to hspa coverage. They have soooooo much edge coverage. Unless you are in a city you're quite likely to be on edge.
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My connection isn't great inside my house, but is LTE quality a hundred yards from my house. Still get better in house reception than the ATT iPhone 5 living here. If there are a lot of tall buildings around and you live in a solid structure your signal will suffer.
MrSmileyJr said:
are all of you using tmobile? anyone on att straight talk have issues?
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I used to have T-Mobile but switched to straight talk and don't have any issue. According to T-Mobile coverage map, I should have sorry voice coverage and excellent data coverage yet it was the other way around. I dried then the other day and love having a constant signal now! T-Mobile just sucked where I lived, AT&T/straight talk is awesome
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
I'm definitely getting worse reception on the Nexus 4 in my home than I did with my Nexus One. I have a weak signal at home, but the Nexus One was able to hold onto it. The Nexus 4 goes in and out. The Nexus 4 is also worse in other places that I regularly go, which have weak signal. I've missed quite a few calls, in the couple weeks I've had the phone. That pretty much never happened with the Nexus One.
Does anyone have a problem with their Nexus 4 signal strength?
I have Bell Canada, which is supposedly has the best coverage in Canada, I live in the suburbs of a relatively large city and I often see no bars at all. I'm sitting on my couch right now and the signal strength is ranging from -97 dBm to -110 dBm.
Do 2.4 Ghz band devices interfere at all? I have bunch of portable phones and 2 routers, so maybe this is related?
Nexus 4 on T-Mobile
I am in Portland OR in an area of good signal according to T-MO but my nexus rarely shows any signal bars inside my house. This is my 3rd N-4. T-Mo says they have great signal in my area.... so what gives with this signal thing?
My reception has been wonky ever since the 4.2.2 and baseband update.
ccgabe said:
I am in Portland OR in an area of good signal according to T-MO but my nexus rarely shows any signal bars inside my house. This is my 3rd N-4. T-Mo says they have great signal in my area.... so what gives with this signal thing?
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I get 1-2 bars in my house usually between 95-105 db, outside I get low 80's and full or near full at all times. Even though my bars inside top out at 2 I have still managed to pull up to 13 Mbps but thats on a sunny day. Didn't see any results above 9 Mbps today. I live on the outskirts of a not so major city so I can't really complain. One minute I'm pulling 10 Mbps and the other I'm only getting like 200 Kbps though, but it's all good enough for what I need it for and I can't complain since its only $30/month. I just transferred from Virgin Mobile after their "upgrade" resulted in me and many other of their customers losing data for the last 3 weeks and to this date its still not fixed! Their "3G" speeds were atrocious, I've pulled higher speeds off of T-Mobiles 2G network.
I hear a lot of us who are on 4.2.2 and baseband .48 have had issues so I'm thinking its either a major software issue with the radio firmware that hasn't been addressed yet in any revision or it could be a major hardware issue as well as I flashed .27, .33, and .48 and noticed no differences. I had to set my phone to WCDMA Only to get it to maintain a good connection, otherwise HSPA/HSPA+ would just cut out after 2 minutes of use and revert to 2G or have no data at all for 5-10 minutes. After switching to WCDMA Only this problem went away completely and I haven't lost a signal since. For whatever reason it picks up more adjacent towers as well on this setting.
I have that kind of problem also though I notice it only when the signal is weak.
It goes from -99dbm to -111dbm with no reason. My other phone (Defy) keeps a good -97 at the same spot without any fluctuation.
I will try to switch to wcdma only.